I feel like I have been doing a lot of the I am overwhelmed posts for the Wednesday post. And I don’t want to do it for the third week.
So I decided that I will do a news drop instead.
Serena is writing again. The Sea Wytch is actually moving forward and I have hope that it will be done this year.
Fae corps publishing is in current negotiations with a narrator to be able to offer audio books.
We are also in negotiations for the possibility of offering another imprint under our team.
I am posting my poetry images on patreon. Any paid amount will allow you to see them. They will not be available anywhere else. I am trying to not post the same poem anywhere else as well. So unless you are a patron the only way to see those poems are to buy the books.
Not sure if I announced it here but I have a new intern for Fae corps who is running the fae corps publishing blog. They are taking a huge amount of work off my plate each week. That should help me with my overwhelmed life.
I have signed up for the half marathon on the poetry marathon. 12 poems in 12 hours. It’s June 15th.
I am sure there’s more news but I don’t know what else to say…. So I will try to remember it by next week.
The purpose of this one is simple. Most likely everyone here knows I run Fae Corps Publishing and I have been doing this in the background for a while now. I plan on talking clearly about the tools I use for publishing, and the way that each one works. Demystifying what I do. Is that to say that I will be making my own self unnecessary? No, because my experience is valuable. I just feel like so much of the process is made out to be harder than it needs to be.
Today I want to discuss the tools I use to deal with the manuscripts. All but one of these tools are free. They require a little bit of time and effort.
First is open office. This will allow most of the formatting that needs to be done. It functions like Microsoft office without the costs. I can when I have a full manuscript made create the pdf and epub from it that I will need for publication.
My pdf tool, which I rarely use for the manuscripts, is master pdf editor 5. I use it for contracts and covers. (I will come back to the covers in another one of these posts.)
And the last tool today is Sigil. This is the one that takes the time and effort. When you create the epub it will not make it properly. You will have to fix it for the publication. There is a couple of minor things that you need to do to get the epub to pass the check – just when you try to put it in the errors will tell you what you need to take out.
The other tools I use I will be discussing next week as I will be visiting my tools for covers and I will try to walk you through my process there.
I will leave on the bottom of the post the upcoming calendar. I feel like that will help.
May –
24th -Anthology Fae Propaganda
29th – (not a release date but I will be on the Owl Light Network reading Pip and Friends Live)
June –
4th – Anthology The Owl Light Menagerie (a special venture with the owl light network)
14th – Hope Splashes by Patricia Harris
21st – Chasing Ghosts by Serena Mossgraves
July –
1st – The Life Collection by Ashira Datya
5th – The Lightning War: Grounding Unit by Parker LaVitte
19th – Falling in Flames by Ashira Datya
August –
23rd – Beneath the Deep Wave by Andrew McDowell
September –
6th – The Fall by Amima Raziel
20th – The Magick Saga Collection by Ashira Datya
October –
18th – My Gothic Angel by Laj & Khoury Hawkins
25th – Anthology Nightmare Whiskers
December –
1st – unknown by Raz T Slasher (middle grade) (*though I don’t normally have an unknown in my list of release dates… from a couple of authors I will take the chance for “kids week” and save the spot. If I don’t get the book from them I will just have an empty spot for the day. But I think that they are worth it.)
2nd – where’s my Sugar by Patricia Harris
3rd – Pip 4: Pip that is not Yours! By Patricia Harris
4th – Anthology Fae Recipes
5th – Unknown by CM Snow
6th – kids week open
7th – kids week open
8th – Hood of Sedna by Mina Skye
13th – Anthology Honesty in Verse
2025
I will get those listed closer. I feel like if I were to put them on the blog it would put too much pressure. I have “penciled” in dates for several authors for 2025 already.
The purpose of this one is simple. Most likely everyone here knows I run Fae Corps Publishing and I have been doing this in the background for a while now. I plan on talking clearly about the tools I use for publishing, and the way that each one works. Demystifying what I do. Is that to say that I will be making my own self unnecessary? No, because my experience is valuable. I just feel like so much of the process is made out to be harder than it needs to be.
Today I want to discuss the basics of what a manuscript needs. This should seem like common sense…but it really isn’t.
First off what size is your book?
For the Fae Corps Publishing books I keep the size the same unless it is a children’s book. we publish 6×9 books. that keeps the template I use the same. it is always going to be 6 by 9 with 1 inch margins. (I use the same margin all around. not everyone does that, but I like the way it looks on the page.)
Each book needs the same thing to be a well put together book. 1. a title page 2. a copyright page 3. contents/acknowledgements/etc 4. body 5. about the author/about the publisher
The title page is the simplest part. It is an introduction to the book. it needs to have the title, any subtitle, the author name and possibly the illustrator name. Occasionally a small illustration to draw attention to the title. Think of it as a cover letter for your story.
The copyright page is a bit of a legal document. it has the copyright declaration – don’t use this without permission and it is not your story kinda stuff. it is also where you list your editor and cover designer. it’s where you note anything legal you need to.
The contents/acknowledgements sections are going to be up to choice. not everyone wants to add table of contents, or acknowledgements, or even author notes. This is where they would be put in.
The body. I recommend using the same font for this section and I actually recommend you choose one that is easier to read. gentium book basics, Garamond, Book Antiqua, Courier, or if you really must Times New Roman. (I really don’t like TNR and will go out of my way to avoid it. it offends me to have to read anything in it. I realize it’s an industry standard but I hate it.) Try to keep the font size around 12-16. You want to keep the page count respectable.
About the author/about the publisher… this is supposed to tell the reader where you can be found… it should be in 3rd person and have at least some sort of ability to find your work elsewhere.
That is what I expect to do with each of the manuscripts I format.
I will leave on the bottom of the post the upcoming calendar. I feel like that will help.
May –
24th -Anthology Fae Propaganda
29th – (not a release date but I will be on the Owl Light Network reading Pip and Friends Live)
June –
4th – Anthology The Owl Light Menagerie (a special venture with the owl light network)
14th – Hope Splashes by Patricia Harris
21st – Chasing Ghosts by Serena Mossgraves
July –
1st – The Life Collection by Ashira Datya
5th – The Lightning War: Grounding Unit by Parker LaVitte
19th – Falling in Flames by Ashira Datya
August –
23rd – Beneath the Deep Wave by Andrew McDowell
September –
6th – The Fall by Amima Raziel
20th – The Magick Saga Collection by Ashira Datya
October –
18th – My Gothic Angel by Laj & Khoury Hawkins
25th – Anthology Nightmare Whiskers
December –
1st – unknown by Raz T Slasher (middle grade) (*though I don’t normally have an unknown in my list of release dates… from a couple of authors I will take the chance for “kids week” and save the spot. If I don’t get the book from them I will just have an empty spot for the day. But I think that they are worth it.)
2nd – where’s my Sugar by Patricia Harris
3rd – Pip 4: Pip that is not Yours! By Patricia Harris
4th – Anthology Fae Recipes
5th – Unknown by CM Snow
6th – kids week open
7th – kids week open
8th – Hood of Sedna by Mina Skye
13th – Anthology Honesty in Verse
2025
I will get those listed closer. I feel like if I were to put them on the blog it would put too much pressure. I have “penciled” in dates for several authors for 2025 already.
So, this is a new type of post. It’s going to be generally a Monday thing – I am going to try to schedule it for the ten o’clock time but if I have any schedule issues this may be the one that I don’t get done.
The purpose of this one is simple. Most likely everyone here knows I run Fae Corps Publishing and I have been doing this in the background for a while now. I plan on talking clearly about the tools I use for publishing, and the way that each one works. Demystifying what I do. Is that to say that I will be making my own self unnecessary? No, because my experience is valuable. I just feel like so much of the process is made out to be harder than it needs to be.
I will admit that I am going to be posting my opinions on the process here… this is my personal blog after all. I will not be using any other author besides me for giving examples. The reason is that I prefer to protect my authors. I’m more than willing to list the upcoming releases for Fae Corps Publishing here, and I likely will.
I am really proud of the work my authors have done. It’s just that if I have a situation that I am going to be tearing apart the process… I don’t think I should do that with anyone else’s stuff.
I will explain why I have certain procedures for the anthologies, and what they are. Including one that seems to surprise most people. I will be explaining my own opinions on the way that anthology design and publishing should be. Again, this is a heavily flavored with opinion section for publishing. (Hence why I am doing it for my personal blog and not doing it for Fae Corps Publishing’s blog)
The first one is more about the post type in general, but I figured that I would include a small schedule for Fae Corps Publishing releases for the rest of the year…(Not linking these as not all have a link yet and those that do would make it clunkier than I need it to be) Though it is tight, I have left a little wiggle room for me to squeeze in my own poetry volumes or maybe something that Serena might finish.
May –
10th – Taming the firestorm by Ashira Datya
24th -Anthology Fae Propaganda
29th – (not a release date but I will be on the Owl Light Network reading Pip and Friends Live)
June –
4th – Anthology The Owl Light Menagerie (a special venture with the owl light network)
14th – Hope Splashes by Patricia Harris
21st – Chasing Ghosts by Serena Mossgraves
July –
1st – The Life Collection by Ashira Datya
5th – The Lightning War: Grounding Unit by Parker LaVitte
19th – Falling in Flames by Ashira Datya
August –
23rd – Beneath the Deep Wave by Andrew McDowell
September –
6th – The Fall by Amima Raziel
20th – The Magick Saga Collection by Ashira Datya
October –
18th – My Gothic Angel by Laj & Khoury Hawkins
25th – Anthology Nightmare Whiskers
December –
1st – unknown by Raz T Slasher (middle grade) (*though I don’t normally have an unknown in my list of release dates… from a couple of authors I will take the chance for “kids week” and save the spot. If I don’t get the book from them I will just have an empty spot for the day. But I think that they are worth it.)
2nd – where’s my Sugar by Patricia Harris
3rd – Pip 4: Pip that is not Yours! By Patricia Harris
4th – Anthology Fae Recipes
5th – Unknown by CM Snow
6th – kids week open
7th – kids week open
8th – Hood of Sedna by Mina Skye
13th – Anthology Honesty in Verse
2025
We already have scheduled Ruan Bradford Wright’s sequel to Toe rag for February. We have a tentative schedule for Dahlia Black to release a book in January. Of course there is two anthologies planned. And kids week.
I know for a fact that Parker LaVitte is planning on doing at least 4 books in his series. Mina Skye has several in hers. Ronald W Gillespie Jr is working on another one. And Amina is working on something amazing as well. Andrew McDowell is working on a third book. All of them are not sitting still… and then there’s Raz. He owes at least one more book of the Silence is Crimson series.
Now when each of them will get the writing done? That I don’t know. I don’t force deadlines because I feel like they stiffle the creativity.
Perhaps with this thread I will be able to open the door and share the publishing thing with more people. Make it less complicated. I have been doing this since 2010. I have learned a lot of things the hardest way.
So I finished with the pad challenge yesterday and now I am starting the next phase of my new blog experience… and I don’t have any posts planned for this week. That means that I will be posting at random times for the next couple of days… but I am going to be trying to figure out what the new blog is going to be looking like.
I have a book review for a friend that I will be posting sometime soon – I was lucky enough to get an ARC for her book… and I can’t wait to tell you what I think about it. I have nearly finished reading it. My review is likely to be released near the release date in June.
Fae Corps Publishing has a full release schedule until January of next year. So I will be able to talk about the publisher side of things some as well.
I still have to go through the categories and do a bit of a cleaning. I hope to get it done before next week.
Though I have done a lot of changes and the changes may mean the blog looks different, I think that it will be nicer to read in the long run.
Okay, I went through and I cleaned out my media files. Starting the first week of May… my blog is going to look slightly different.
I still have to go through my categories and do a cleaning.
I’m going to start posting the poetry more like I have this month. With the reusable image.
I will still be posting art on occasion but I am thinking about using Artsy Fartsy Thursday as a day to discuss art and the creation of rather than just posting the art.
The images I saved are either blog images, or memes that I use regularly, or book covers. So much of the blog before this is going to be missing the image from the posts.
Since I am going to be doing the poetry in a text format, I plan to try to do a second post on Monday but I don’t know if it will always be a second poem.
That should be the majority of the changes. Thank you for the patience as I have been doing this change.
Just because I love you, And believe that I do… That does not mean Words slung in anger Will not hurt all the same.
Love is not the salve That ends all wounds Nor the fuel that Launches you over the moon…
Love can be the tie That binds if you Actually want to spend Trust and time.
*poet’s note: this is the prompt that I usually skip. He does it for every PAD challenge and I don’t normally know what to write. It’s always a Tuesday thing… love or anti love. This time it sparked. So… some of the prompts just hit differently at the right time.
So it’s time to ask for the next volume for both Serena and myself. Since I do it on Facebook publicly and I don’t want to blow up my media here… I am putting it in as links.
So, I decided I wanted to do my blog differently because the picture limits were annoying me. However…I don’t like the expense for the paid blog here. So I paid for www.pattimouse.org Which I am waiting for the site to be situated that I designed…(And then it will probably take a bit of time to adjust to the new blog) I plan on still linking to it, HERE…and doing the random text blogging here…but I will be doing the picture heavy stuff there. So I will be doing some adjustments to how I post. Once I get it set up right…which as I said will take time. This should make my posts more interesting I hope.
Pattimouse 